Cathy
“I can’t meet for coffee. I’ll be lucky if I make it to Friends-giving before you leave for Cape May.”
Cindy’s voice is breathless in my ear. Normally, that might make me suspicious, since she and Lennox, her huge mountain man of a hubby, seem to be in a permanent state of breathlessness lately, but during the school year, we barely see each other unless we’re working a catering event together.
I don’t think she’s missing one of our super-rare coffee breaks just to fool around.
“What’s wrong? You sound flustered. Is it hanky-panky flustered, or something-bad flustered?” I close my laptop and push aside the pile of Thanksgiving acrostic poems I’m grading, each one topped with a scented sticker and some specific praise and critique.
“Something-not-awesome. You remember Marlow?”
“Lennox’s brother?” I’ve only seen him once, at the wedding. He was quiet, kept to himself, and stayed near their uncle, who was blind. He looks a lot like Lennox, same enormous build, same long black beard, same shyness. At least, I think it was shyness. Maybe he’s just not a big wedding person.
“I know you only met him once, and he and Len don’t always get along, but things have been better since Lennox uh—left home.
They had a complicated childhood, raising each other without parents from the time they were young teens.
Just... a lot of power struggles. A lot of very different personality traits. ”
“Cin, you don’t have to explain anything to me. Remember, I have a bunch of sisters.”
“Yeah, and you all get along. I mean, how could you not? You’re like five copies of the same person. It’s like your mom and dad had one and then hit the ‘clone’ button.”
I can’t argue with that. My family is super Hallmark Channel-esque, but as a teacher with a bunch of students who all share different life experiences, and as someone who has lived on my own for the last seven years, it’s not like I don’t understand that my family is the exception, not the rule. “You’re spiraling. Stressed?”
“Do you remember Earl, the old man who came with Marlow?”
“He’s an uncle? Right?”
There’s a pause, and I hear mumbled conversation—well, I sort of hear it.
“Adopted uncle. Yes. More like a dear old friend of the family. Of Marlow, really. He’s in trouble.
He’s in danger of losing his spot at the senior facility he lives in.
Marlow knows he needs more care than just an assisted living community—he needs a place where the residents get checked on daily, not just given the bare minimum of their meds delivered each week.
And um... Marlow isn’t in the best position to help him out where he lives.
It’s a little town in West Virginia, and there aren’t a lot of options, there aren’t a lot of nursing homes, and—and he’s not a blood relative.
Some nursing homes won’t let you in, won’t let you be part of making care decisions—and they’ll take his dog.
Earl’s blind, and Tilly’s not an official guide dog, but she’s pretty close...
Ugh. Marlow wants to move Earl and Tilly here, find a job here—start over in Pine Ridge, like Lennox did. ”
“Well, it sure worked out for Lennox. What’s wrong with that, other than Marlow and Lennox not really hitting it off all the time?”
I can picture Cindy mentally ticking off items on her fingers. “We’re a small town, too! I don’t know what jobs he can get when he doesn’t even have a... driver’s license. And he has to get Earl up here, and he doesn’t have a... car.”
“Why the pauses? Oh, my God. Cindy.” My voice drops, and I look around my classroom like someone’s going to overhear me. “Does Marlow have a criminal record?”
“No. More like he has no records at all. God. There’s just a lot to explain and a lot to figure out.
That’s all. Lennox and I were supposed to be spending the extra time when the lawns and gardens at White Pines are out of bloom on our own little ‘planting project.’ Instead of trying to make a baby, we’re going to be raising a grumpy old man, an annoying brother-in-law, and a dog. The dog is the best part.”
“Baby!? I’m going to be an aunt?” I screech.
“You have four older sisters and a handful of nieces and nephews already.”
“But a Cindy and Lennox baby? I’m going to be a Cindy-and-Lennox-baby aunt?” I reach for the tissues and dab at my eyes. “My bestie is having a baby...”
“Not any time soon,” Cindy laughs, then sighs. “We were just having fun trying. Winter is the off-season for gardeners, so...”
“So, the sooner you get Earl and Marlow settled, the sooner you’ll go back to making me a niece or nephew? Don’t give me any details, Cynthia, just say yes or no.”
“Yes.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Huh? Nothing, just don’t mind if I bail on you for coffee for the foreseeable future.
Do you know how many nursing homes there are in Broome County?
Like twenty. Do you know how many of them offer just the right level of care and who will let Marlow be involved with decision-making for Earl’s care?
I mean, he’ll have to get medical power of attorney.
That’s not what Marlow’s asking us to help with, but Len asked around, and that’s the thing he needs to have if he wants to be the one who makes emergency medical decisions for Earl.
Do you know how many hoops you have to jump through to get that? Especially if you’re not a relative?”
“That’s like three questions in one, and I have no idea—but I do know that Hilltop Home has meals served each day and everyone has their own rooms and bathrooms—mini apartments, really. It runs more like a family home or some nice hotel than a nursing home. And they allow pets, including dogs.”
“Hilltop? That’s the place in town that only opened up a few months ago.”
“I know. It’s convenient, right?”
“But it’s tiny. I read the article in the Pine Ridge Gazette when all the seniors were doing that Team Paws thing, and the high school kids and the Lumberjacks hockey team were helping the residents get pets.
I mean, I can tell that they allow dogs, but they only have a dozen residents. Earl will never get in.”
My friend is usually way more gutsy and gung-ho.
She must be thrown for quite the loop, and I get it.
If I didn’t like my brother-in-law much, and he was suddenly moving into my little town and bringing a truckload of tricky legal, financial, and medical problems with him, I’d probably be in a tailspin, too.
“They must have a waiting list, or maybe they can recommend someplace. Maybe he can stay with Marlow just for a few months until a spot opens up,” I soothe.
“Why don’t you figure out where Marlow is going to stay, and I’ll make some inquiries at Hilltop Home? ”
There’s a long pause, and then Cindy says, “That’s super sweet, Cath, but I don’t feel like I can ask you to cold call a senior living place for me.”
“It wouldn’t be a cold call. My class is part of Team Paws Jr. They raise money for pet supplies with read-a-thons, bake sales, and stuff like that.
Grace Sanderson-Cameron and her husband run the place, and they pitched the idea of ‘Adopt a Grandparent.’ My class will be there tomorrow to make paper turkeys and read their poems on thankfulness, and then in two weeks, they’ll be there to do a snowflake craft and story time. Then—”
“Cathy, stop. You’re amazing, but you’re making my biological clock ring like crazy, and I have to hit the snooze button.”
“Making crafts and reading stories is getting to you?” I admit I’m shocked.
Cindy has always been the brash one of my friend group—the Three Cs, Cindy, Claire, and me, Cathy.
Cindy was the wild child, and now she’s the wild wife, the one voted most likely to need bail money for public indecency.
(Claire and I have a bet running on when and where it’ll happen.)
“A little. Doesn’t it ever get to you? I mean, out of the three of us, you’re the one I always thought would be playing house by now, probably in an apron and heels, hanging out in a natural wood and beige nursery.”
“Ew. Children need colors.”
“I’m teasing! But you radiate maternal energy—which is probably why you want to step in and help me solve everything, Mama Bear.”
I smile at the exhaustion and love in Cindy’s voice. “That’s what any friend would do, silly. Look, you go work on Marlow’s housing; I’ll work on Earl’s. Talk to you tomorrow afternoon after dismissal—but I’ll be later than normal, I have carline.”
“Got it. Thanks, Cath.”
“You’re welcome.”
I hang up and rise, slowly gathering the stack of grading I need to do and the lesson plans I need to finalize. I wipe down desks. Straighten little chairs. Smile at all the artwork that decorates the wall behind my desk.
My classroom feels like home. This is my second year teaching, and I still like it. No burnout yet.
Actually—the opposite. This school goes through a fair amount of turnover, but I don’t know why. I love the kids here. I feel like they’re my babies, even though I know I’m just their teacher.
I stop and put away a couple of books left out on the beanbag chair in the Book Nook and have to stand still, suddenly crushed by the weight of the longing inside of me.
Being a daughter is great. A sister? Terrific. A teacher? Wonderful.
I’m twenty-six, almost twenty-seven. Words like wife and mom have been tossed around as being part of my life since I could understand words. With high school sweetheart parents and a big family, I always assumed that I’d have at least started on the path to having a family of my own.
I thought I’d at least have a serious boyfriend by now.
It’s been a long, long time—since before I transferred from Cape May County Community College to NYU Pine Ridge.
All the men I meet at school are the dads of my students or colleagues.
Off limits.
All the men I meet at my part-time waitressing job at the River House are on dates or family dinners. Off limits.